Improved apparatus for making paper boxes



L "A nmw l UNITED STATES PATENT OEIPICPEla FRANQOIS LEGLRE, OF BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER BOXES.

Spor-intuition flu-ming part of Letters Patent No. 84,835, datedDecember 8, 1868.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRANQOIS LECLRE, ofBoston, in the county of Suolk and State of Massachusetts, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Forming Hollow Articles fromPaper-Pulp; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken inconnection with the drawings which accompany and form part of thisspecification, is a description of my invention sufficient to ena-blethose skilled in the art to practice it.

This invention is designed for the formation of hollow paper articlesfrom paper-pulp, and is illustrated in this specification in itsapplication to the formation of paper boxes, though applicable, as willbe obvious, to the formation of hats and other objects.

I am aware that it is not new to collect on 'pervious formers hollowarticles by causing the deposit on such formers of the fibrous materialcontained in paper-pulp, during which deposit the water of the pulppasses oft' through the pores of the former 5 but all of the previousefforts in that direction have produced articles more or less faulty,some of which have been seamy and not of uniform strength, having inthemselves lines in which fracture or breakage soon occurred. Otherarticles, made by previous processes, have been lacking in uniformthickness, and in none of said processes has the practical manufacturebeen attended with that certainty and dispatch needed for profitableoperation.

In said previous processes a leading feature has been to have the paperber mixed with as little water as possible, while in my process I use avery thin pulp in a peculiar way, the object of which is to secure suchuniformity in the thickness of the article formedthat the departure fromperfect uniformity shall be hardly perceptible; and this, which is themain feature of my invention, I accomplish by employing over thepervious former a column ofthin pulp, which in height several timesexceeds the height of the article to be made.

The difference between this process and the previous processes may bethus illustrated, with reference to the diagrams marked A and B, cachrepresenting a pervions former covered by a cylinder, each cylinder tobe filled with pulp, that in A being a mixture of a given quantity offiber with about two units of water, and that in B being a mixture ofthe same quantity of ber with about yten units of water.

Suppose, then, that the former is so proportioned that the areas of itstop and its vertical periphery are equal, and that the height ot' thecylinder at A is double the height of the former, and that the height ofthe cylinder at B is ten times that of the height ofthe former, and thatthe diameters of the cylinders are such that in the imaginary divisionsrepresented by dotted lines the cubic contents of each cylindricaldivision y2 shall equal the cubic contents of each tubular division c2,and that the cubic contents of each of said divisions equals the amountot' cubic displacement of 'each former. Then it will be seen that in thecylinder at A, as the water percolates through the pervious former tillthe pulp is on a level with the top of the former, a deposit of ber willbe made on the top and sides of the former of equal thickness, because,without reference to the difference of pressures, an equal amount ofwater will have passedthrough both the sides and the top, leaving on theequal areas equal amounts of solid matter; but it will also be obvious,when taking into account the differences of pressures, that the depositwill be greatest at the bottom of the sides of the former, because, asthe pressure of water is greatest there, it will escape there faster,and will leave on the former at the place where it escapes the solidmatter for which it is a vehicle.

The. pulp being now on a level with' the top of the former, and thequantity of solid matter in the tubular division z2 surrounding theformer being about one-third of that originally placed in the cylinder,it will be seen that as the water escapes through the former the depositalready on its sides will be regularly increased from the top to thebottom, while at the bottom of the cylinder will be formed a iiangeintegral with the matter deposited on the former.

Now, in the cylinder at B it will rstbe observed that the ratio of thedifference of pressures at the top and bottom of the former is much lessthan the ratio in the cylinder at A, and hence there will be a lessvariation ot' thickness from that canse.

v It will also be seen that, as the pulp settles to the top of theformer, depositing the solid matter in the cylindrical sections y2 onthe top of the former an d the solid matter in the tubular division z2on the sides of theformer, there will be left in the tubular division z2immediately surrounding the former only about one-nineteenth part of theunit oi' solid matter originally placed in the cylinder; hence thedeposit of the solid matter contained in said division will but veryslightly increase in a taper from the top to the bottom the thickness ofthe paper deposit on the sides of the former.

The difference in thickness in thevertical or nearly vertical boundariesof articles made by my process is thus made so slight as to be of nopractical importance whatever, though, if desired, it may be entirelyreduced, or even reversed, by admission into the cylinder, around itsbase, of fine streams or of a ilm of water less in amount than thequantity which will percolate through the former.

Besides the advantages which my process of working thin pulp in a highcolumn over a pervious former gives in obtaining hollow articles ofsubstantiallyT uniform thickness, the fibers are themselves betterinterlaced thereby, so that the resultant products are of the saidarticles are transferred toward their completion, as will be explainedbeyond.

Ot' the drawings, Figures l and 2 are ele- Y vations of opposite sidesof a machine by which I practice my improved process of depositingpaper-pulp on pervious formers, and embodying certain details andcombinations of mechanism of my invention, by which my process isautomatically effected. Fig. 3 is a plan of said machine, with the topplate a of its frame and the parts thereunto directly attached removed.Fig. 4 is a plan, with the cylindercarrying wheel b, the plate c, andthe pumping mechanism removed to show the parts located beneath theremoved portions. Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional elevation taken in theplane of the line z e, seen in Fig. 4.

The base of the machine is marked d, and this, with the posts c,supporting the top plate a, together make up the frame. The verticalshaft f, on which the horizontal wheel I) revolves, is xed in the based, and intermittent rotary motion is imparted to the wheel by means ofapawl, g, engaging in notches formed in the lower edge of the outer rimof wheel b, the pawl being borne and pivoted on the radius-arm h, whichis moved back and forth by Y the jointed connecting-arm fi, which isworked from a crank-pin in the gear j, which is driven by a pinion onthe main driving-shaft 7c, to which the power is applied which actuatesall parts of the machine.

lThe plate of the wheel b is slotted, as seen in Fig. 3, and in eachslot is itted, as a carriage capable of sliding in the slot, avalve-box, Z, (seen in section in Fig. 5,) said valve-boxhaving fittedupon its upper surfacea pervious former, m, surrounded by a rubberpacking-ring, n. Each valve-box l contains a puppet-valve, o, itted torise and fall, so as to control the passage or seat made in thediaphragm of the valve-box, the lower end of the valve-spindleprojecting below the box l, being guided in a stirrup or bail-likeprojection, p, which has al function of opening another valve, whichoperates, at one portion ofthe machine, with each valve o, as will behereafter explained.

On each side of each opening for the valveboxes lare guides q, whichserve to keep in place during their rise and fall the cylinders r, whichare spaced around the plate b, and are located over the formers m whenthey oecupy the position which they have nearest thet shaft j'.

The cylinders i' are made to rise as they rotate with wheel b by reasonot the action ofv the friction-rolls s on the stationary incline t, therolls engaging and disengaging with the incline as the wheel b turns inthe direction indicated by arrows on the drawings.

The cylinders, when in their lowest position, rest on the rubberpacking-rings a, so that they will contain, without leakage, thepaperpulp which is discharged into each of them successively as itpasses under the pipe u, leading from a pulp-vat, fu, in which the pulpis kept agitated by any suitable stirrer worked from the prime motor,said vat being supplied with paper-pulp by means of a pump from areservoir, w.

Over the tops of the cylinders o' is a ringtrongh, a1, secured to theguides q, and rotating with them. Said trough has dischargingpipes, oneover each cylinder, so that as each cylinder comes to rest under thepipe n, and the cock therein is so adjusted that the cylinderbeneathwill be filled with pulp to the desired height before the nextcylinder is moved underneath pipe u, the trouglra: preventing alloverflow.

Beneath the wheel b, and fixed to the bed d, is a sector-like trough, y,which catches the water which drains oi from the pulp during the processof forming hollow objects on the porous formers.

On the receiver y are secured two inclines, al and b1, which areoperative on the valveboxes Z as the wheel b revolves, to cause saidboxes to move outwardlyr and inwardly in the slots made inthe wheel forthat purpose, the impact of the boxes l with incline al causing theoutward movement of the boxes which are moved inward by impact withincline b'.

The incline a2 operates to keep the boxes l from being thrown outwardlytoo rapidly when incline al comes into contact with them.

Another incline, o1, is secured to the receiver y, the function of whichis t0 operate on the spindles of valves 0 to lift them as they move intheir circular path over said incline.

I will now describe the operation of the maing the operation of onecylinder, as the others are but duplicates.

Suppose one of the cylinders i' beneath theV pulp-pipe u, and resting onthe packing-ring a ot' a valve-chamber, I, beneath the cylinder, whichthus covers a porous former, m, at which position the valve o of thevalve-chamber l is closed upon its seat. The cylinder remains in saidposition till filled sufficiently; then the pawl g moves' itintermittently with the wheel b, in which operation the incline cl liftsthe valve o and permits the pulp to settle upon former m, dischargingthe water through the former into the receiver y and depositing thetiber of the pulp on the former. When in the rotary movement of thewheel the rolls of the cylinder arrives at the incline t, which will bewhen there is no free pulp left in the cylinder around the former an.,the rolls ascends the ineline t and elevates the cylinder till its baseis raised above the top of the wet fiber deposited on the former an., atwhich time the valve'boX l of the cylinder referred to will have arrivedat the incline al, which then begins to force the valve-box l and itssuperincumbent former outward till the center of the former ml arrivesat the are of the circle in which is located the center ofthe device bywhich most of the moisture remaining in the pulp is expelled.

Connected with the machine, and operated as shown in the drawings, or inany other suitable way, is an apparatus for forcing air under pressureinto a cylinder, dl, which is raised and lowered with its centery overthe center of the former when left in the position last described, thepipe conveying air from the air-forcing apparatus being flexible orjointed, and being marked cl in the drawing. This cylinder has a closedtop and an open bottom, which shuts down upon the packingring n on thevalve-case l, so that, when the stem fl of the valve controlling thepassage between the pipe el and the cylinder dl is operated by the actof the closing downward movementof cylinder d, an air-pressure isbrought upon the pulp covering the former m., and the moisture in thepulp is driven out of it through the former m, the valve o stillremaining open. The cylinder dl then rises, and the intermittentrotative movement ot' the wheel b carries the former, covered with thenearly dry paper, under a cap, gl, which descends and covers the formerm. Then a valve-box, hl, to which the air-pipe il is attached, islifted, and the end of the spindle of the valve jl in the valve-box hlcomes into contact with the bail p of valvebox l. opening valve jlagainst the resistance of the spring which keeps it closed, and thespindle of valve jl, coming into contact with the spindle of valve o,opens said valve, so that a current of air passes by valves jl and ofrom the pipe il and, entering the concavity of the former m, drives thepaper article thereon from its surface into the cap gl, which thenrises, and the former m proceeds by intermittent rotative movement ofthe wheel b again under the pulp-delivery spout a.

There are two caps like gl, the other marked g2, so arranged as tochange in position by a half rotative movement alternately back andforth, so that after the paper body has been received by one cap, gl,itchanges position with the other cap, g2, which cap g2 is then ready todescend on the next presented former m, to perform the function alreadydescribed as performed by gl. W'hen g2 descends to receive the paperarticle from a former, m, gl also descends overa removable block of theshape of former m, and when closed down over the block an air-blast frompipe k drives the paper body upon the block, releasing it from the capgl, the blast being caused by the opening of a valve consequent on thedescent of gl. The movable block is taken when cap gl rises, preparatoryto swinging back to its first position, and is, with the paper articleupon it, submitted to heat, to further dry the paper before it ispressedor otherwise finished.

lt will be unnecessary to describe the airforcing pumps and the means bywhich they are operated, as there is nothing novel or peculiar in them,and they are sufficiently shown -in the drawings to indicate to anyordinary mechanician their combination and manner of operation with mymachine. The pipe l', proceeding from the air-chamber of the pumps,connect-s with a branch of a cross-pipe sustained over the machine, fromthe other three branches of which pipe proceed the airpipes il, jl, andk', before mentioned.

To operate the cylinder dl in its rise and fall, and the air-valvetherein, and to operate the caps gl g2 in their rise and fall, and intheir interchange of position, and to cause the air-valves co-operativewith said caps to perform their functions, the following mechanism ismade use of 0n the driving-shaft k is a bevel-gear meshing into asimilar gear, my', on a shaft, which rotates a bevel-pinion, whichmeshes into the bevel-gear n', formed on the upper corner of thecylinder-cam o', which, in rotating, carries a spur-pinion, (seen indotted lines, Figs. 3 and 4,) which pinion, meshing into the spur-gearp', turns the disk g', in which is the crank-pin i". This crankpin,working in the slotted head of the slide s', causes it to reciprocateand to rest at the proper times, and by means ot' the connecting-linkt', attached to a wrist in the segmentgear a', causes the segment toturn back and forth on its center at intervals, and to give a rotativemovement of one hundred and eighty degrees to the pinion c', into whichthe teeth of the segment mesh. rEhe pinion fu is txed on a vert-icalshaft, (It, which extends upward through a sleeve secured to the platec, and carries at its upper end the bar w', from which depend the capsgl g2. The bar w has fixed to it a sleeve, which surrounds the sleevesecured to plate c, and the air-pipe k discharges into a branched pipe,m', carried by the bar w', which pipe connects with valve-chambers yl,located between the sleeves on the shaft of pinion 'U' and the caps glg2, there being airdischa-rge passages between the valve-chambers y1 Q/landthe caps. g1 g2, which are controlled by the valves in the chambersy1 g/l, so that when either of said valves is opened an air-blast willenter the cap with which it is connected, and will blow out therefromthe paper article which may be held in said cap.

On plate c is fixed the guide-stand zl,which guides the spindle b2,which is raised and lowered at the same time that the shaft d2 of piniono' is raised and lowered by the act-ion of the cylinder-cam o', therebeing a bar, c2, which connects and supports the lower ends of the shaftd2, and of the spindle b2, there being about midway of the length ofsaid bar a roll or pin, (seen in dotted lines in Fig. 4,) which entersthe groove of the cam o', so that as the cam revolves the bar c2 and theair-vessel dl and the caps g1 and g2 are raised and lowered.

- The air-vessel dl is connected to spindle b2 by the arm e2, and isguided in rising and falling by suitable ways, there being connectedwith d, so as to rise and fall therewith, a valve-chamber, f2, whichreceives air from tlexible pipe c.

The valve in f2, by which air is admitted to and is cut oit' fromchamber dl, is opened as d shuts upon the packing-ring n by contact ofthe end of valve-spindle j" with an adjustable stop.

Then either of the caps g1 or g2 is in the position shown in thedrawings, as occupied by g2, descent of the caps causes the spindle ofthe valve in the chamber y1 most remote from the wheel b to come againstan adjustable stop, h2, so as to open the valve and admit from pipe k ablast of air into the cap g1 or g2, as the case may be, to expel thepaper article contained in the cap upon the block placed beneath the capto receive the article.

It will be seen that in the semi-rotations of the caps g1 g2 back andforth the flexible pipe 7s `not only bends in rising and falling, buttwists and untwists one hundred and eighty degrees at' eachsemi-revolution ofthe caps. When either of the caps g or g2 is inposition nearest the wheel b, and descends so as to cover the former m,having upon it the paper article to be taken oli from said former, thenthe end of shaft (l2 strikes an adjustable screw, '62, in one end ofleverjz, which is thereby operated to lift valve-case h, the effect ofwhich is to admit air beneath the former m from pipe il, and to blowtherefrom the paper article into cap gl or g2, as will be readilyunderstood by inspection of Fig. 5, the case hlbeing guided in suitableways tixed to the bed-plate d.

The :flange made on the paper boxes or other articles, if not needed,may be trimmed 0E, and the cuttings may be returned to the ragengine, tobe reconverted into pulp, and the water which has been drained throughthe formers may be used repeatedly.

The air-pressure employed in the cylinder d1 to expel the waterremaining in the gathered pulp may be of any degree of intensity neces-Time can be given for the water to drain ott i f d through the porousformers, and rapid production of the formed articles can be obtained byincreasing the diameter of the wheel b and the number of cylinders orhollow prisms carried thereby.' Y

In some cases it will be of advantage to make use of steam instead ofair to press upon the pulp to accelerate the discharge of water from thepulp through the pervious former, and in some cases the cylinders r, ortheir prismatic equivalents, may be closed at the top after receivingthe pulp, so that air or steam under pressure may be admitted toaccelerate the deposition of the solid matter of the pulp.

I claim for the purpose specified- 1. The described process of usingthin pulp iu high columns over pervious formers, substantially as setforth.

2. Also, the combination of the wheel b with cylinders, fr', arranged torise and fall over the formers on, substantially as and for the purposeset forth.

3. Also, the combination of the wheel b and slides conveying the formerson with inclines to move the slides outward and inward as the Awheelrevolves, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. Also, the combination with the cylinders i' and their conveyer b, ofthe valves o and the incline c1, operative thereon, substantially as andfor the purpose set forth.

5. Also, the process of condensing the pulp 011 the former and expellingthe water therefrom against atmospheric pressure by covering thepulp-covered former with a close vessel, di, and admitting therein airunder pressure, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

6. Also, the process for removing the paper from the pervious former bycovering the pulp on the former with a cap iitting thereon and admittingan air-blast within the former, substantially as and for the purpose setforth.

7. Also, the process for removing the paper from the cap which receivedit from the former, and for transferring the paper to a receivingblock,by covering the receiver-block with the cap and admitting an air-blastinto the cap, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

FRANQOIS LEGLRE.

IVitnesses J. B. CROSBY, L. H. LATIMER..

